


Mistakes Were Made

by ToMarsAndBeyond3



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-13 17:10:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21184040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToMarsAndBeyond3/pseuds/ToMarsAndBeyond3
Summary: Halloween is approaching and reality is starting to bend. Agent Brotzman is falling in love with Svlad Cjelli, missing subject Amanda is planning something stupid, and therthere is a conspicuous wet spot on the ceiling. It couldn't all be connected, right?





	Mistakes Were Made

**October 30th  
11:30 am**

Svlad has a stolen pen that he uses to draw funny little pictures on the lower park of the wall. The area is up against his bed, covered by the pillow that sits there. Every day, just before the lights turn off in his room, there’s a few minutes where the cameras turn off so that the people watching them can start a new recording. It’s during these moments that many, many things can happen. Usually these few minutes consist of Svlad moving his pillow to draw on the wall, but sometimes his friend - his best friend - will come to visit. Mona would have gotten Svlad out of this place long ago if only she knew how, but she was far too nice to want to hurt anyone in the process, and a breakout would no doubt include someone getting hurt.

Today, he wasn’t drawing. He was wiping old pen marks off the wall so that he would have more room, and it was in this position that he was found.

Theodore wasn’t a new agent, he had been working here ten years, but he had only been working with Svlad for a month.

“What’s going on?”

Svlad shoved the pillow back into place, his face starting to turn pink under the harsh artificial lights. He expected Theodore to look angry, but the agent closed the door and inched forward.

“Nothing.”

“Clearly. Show me.”

“There’s nothing to show,” Svlad tried again, his voice becoming a little more desperate.

Theodore rolled his eyes and sat on the other side of the bed. He pulled away the pillow to reveal the marked up wall, but he wasn’t angry. The pictures were - metaphorically - colorful, and they looked like they might be the happiest thing in this place. It made Theodore’s heart stop for a moment.

He hated working with Svlad; hated the stupid way he made him feel.

“Is this my necklace?” Theodore pointed to he little smiling pumpkin on the wall. He was wearing that right now. His sister had given it to him before she dissapeared.

“No,: Svlad mumbled, rubbing his face to hid the shame. “I’m sorry. Please don’t put me back into isolation?”

“What?” Theodore frowned. Svlad was a long-standing subject, so anyone who worked with him had to go through his files before working with him. He had been barred from isolation after Addams took over (he had a tendency to hurt himself during it in search of a little stimulation) and so even if Theo wanted to put Svlad into isolation, he would be fired if he did. “Icarus-”

“That’s not my name.”

“Svlad,” Theodore drawled, narrowing his eyes. He didn’t have the paitence for this. I’m not, just- just put the pillow back up.”

Svlad did as he was told. Theodore looked down at his necklace and then back at the man. “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s a pumpkin,” Svlad said; he wasn’t stupid.

“Yeah, but do you know what it’s for.”

Svlad was quiet for a minute. “It’s a pumpkin,” he said again, a little stupidly. Svlad wasn’t sure what pumpkins were for because he had no memory of life before Blackwing anymore. He had heard a few guards talk about doing called pumpkin pie a few times though, so maybe a pumpkin was something you ate pie out of.

“It’s, a decoration,” Theodore said. His voice softened a little, and he wasn’t very sure why. “You like, put it outside of your house, or hang a picture of it in your window, and make them look scary.”

“That one doesn’t look scary.” Svlad reached out and poked the one hanging off of Theodore’s chain. Theodore had the urge to grab his hand, not in a harsh way, but gently. “It’s smiling.”

“Well, I guess they don’t really have to be scary, but usually they should be.”

“Who would want something scary?” Svlad made a face, and Theodore laughed.

“It’s for halloween.”

“Halloween?”

“Yeah, it’s tomorrow.”

“How am I meant to know that?”

Good point. Theodore deflated a little, shrugging and leaning back against the wall. “I don’t really know, but, it’s still tomorrow.”

“What is halloween? Do you like it?” Svlad crawled a little closer, only stopping when their shoulders were touching. Theo stared at him, because even after a lifetime in this place, he was pretty. He was sure that, if he only showed proof that he could keep Svlad under control - which he could - he might be allowed to mentor Svlad if only to spend a little more time with him, get him out of the experimentation floor.

“I guess,” Theodore said, starting to frown. “I haven’t really done anything for it since I saw my sist- since, a long time ago.”

A sister? Svlad caught that, but this was such a nice moment that he didn’t want to ruin it. He just nodded and picked at the sleeves of his jumpsuit. “What’s it for?”

“It’s supposed to be scary,” Theodore said softly.

“But that’s stupid.”

“I dont think so.” Theo used to love Halloween, mainly because his sister had been so into it. “You dress up in costumes, and kids go around to like, collect candy. And you can like, just be like… spooky.”

Svlad snorted. “Spooky?”

“Well, I mean-”

“And I thought you were some big bad professional agent. But no. Spooky.”

Theodore huffed, crossing his arms in a rather childish attempt to maintain his composure. He could leave. He could leave right now and not bring Svlad to his meal for the incompetence, but he didn’t, he never did anymore. Yeah, so maybe he wanted to spend time with him, but it was fine. Anyone who said otherwise was either selling something, or they were Osmund Priest.

“I am an agent,” Theodore said.

Svlad’s smile softened a little and he rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I know. I’m only teasing.”

“I noticed.” And then… “Sorry.”

“It’s alright.” Svlad gave him a few more smiling moments before his expression faded. “I wuld dress up as a detective.”

“A what?”

“A detective.” Svlad held out his hands in an attempt to explain. “It would be a lot of bright colors, mind you. Blue. Maybe yellow.”

“But, a detective is supposed to be inconspicuous.”

“Exactly! If someone is trying to be that, it would be quite obvious they were a detective, don't you think? A real detective would dress as someone wouldn't expect. And besides, I like bright colors. I’m going to only dress in them, one day.”

“And, what day is that?”

“Well…” Svlad didn’t have an answer for him, but he knew in his heart that it was probably soon. He could feel it. There was a feeling in his chest, a foreboding, so he knew something was coming. “One day.”

Theodore couldn’t help but root for him.

“Here.” Theodore reached behind his head and undid the chain around his neck, letting it fall into his palm. “Um, you can have this. For now,” he added in a stricter tone.

Svlad nodded and carefully took the necklace, cradling the little pendent in his hands. He hadn’t really been able to have many things, but the things he did have were treasured and loved.

The first was a little cactus, which he was given for not managing to escape back when so many of the other original subjects did. He didn’t actually love that one as much as the others. It reminded him that he had failed to get out in time, that he had had a chance of living out in the real world and had failed; now he was doomed to live out his whole life here. The second possession of his was a smiling clown doll that had appeared in his room one day, and after some consideration Riggins had decided he could have it. It liked to move around. Svlad would leave it in one place when he was taken for testing and when he returned it was in another. His third possession was his secret pen.

Now he had a fourth.

Svlad was grinning, though it looked just a little too soft to be considered as such. Theodore felt odd, like there were hands in his stomach grasping and pulling at his innards; except in this scenario he could feel no pain, so all that was left was a funny and twisting emotion.

Theodore left the room with an unreadable expression on his face and nodded at a passing agent like nothing had just happened.

Svlad was… he was a highly unpredictable subject. He wasn’t dangerous, in fact he was probably one of the least dangerous subjects here. The man had been here so long that any anger he had seemed to have been drawn out of him.

It was probably Osmund’s fault.

Theodore couldn’t deny that there was something about him, though. It went beyond what was considered professional, no, he liked Svlad. As a person. Nothing more. Why would it be anything more?

Theo took a deep breath and continued on down the hallway. This was all nonsense, and he was better off not thinking about it.

**October 30th, 2019  
12:14 pm**

“Catch!”

Amanda ducked as an old, ragged stuffed doll was thrown at her head. She laughed, picking it up from the ground and looking at it. It looked to be literally falling apart at the seams. Faded pink string wormed out of it’s head as a replacement for hair, and it’s dress was a hodgepodge of different fabrics sewn into one patchy dress. It was smiling at Amanda.

She smiled back.

“Where’d you get this,” she asked the cop who had thrown it.

“That old house,” she said, gesturing to the window. The house was nowhere nearby, but the message was there. “Cool right? Kinda like those crazy guys, right?”

“Totally.”

Amanda wondered if this was where the idea of pink hair had come from. A dated doll with pink hair seemed just as likely as a simple act of the imagination, but now that she had the doll Amanda was leaning towards the former as an explanation. She put the doll on the desk.

“Think we could like, give it back?” The cop raised an eyebrow and grinned at Amanda.

The cop’s name was Tina. Amanda had decided a long time ago that there were only two cops in the world that she liked and Tina was one of them; her partner was the other. They were good people. Tina laughed and grabbed the doll back from her, their hands touching for a moment.

No.

Only some people were allowed to touch Amanda. Some people. Tina wasn't one of them. Amanda closed her fist and then opened it again; she could hear cars racing past the police station. The clock was moving slowly, sluggishly, loudly and the voices in the other room were right by her ear. She wasn't moving. The sounds were moving towards her. Prickles under her skin rise up and she held her breath; Amanda was going to have an attack. It was going to hurt. But everything hurt already and she couldn't fix it.

Shit. Shit.

What was going on under her skin? There were very bad people here. She had to leave-

"Hey."

A warm voice was behind her, and she jumped. She was just in the police station. Turning a little to face the voice, it revealed itself to only be one of her friends, and she sighed.

Her friend didn't.

"C'mon," he said, gesturing to the room with the other voices. "Just sit down."

"I'm fine, Martin."

"Ya' zoned out for a few minutes there."

She followed Martin back to the others, wanting to apologize to Tina but not knowing how. It isn't her fault. But as Amanda sat back and curled against Vogel, everything felt a little better.

"So," said the tiniest voice in the room; a little boy with a crown on his head. "As I was saying, I'm going to do it."

"Dunno if that's a good idea," Gripps said, shaking his head.

"He was my friend. I have to," said the boy. "And you need to help him."

Vogel frowned. "Why?"

"Helping people is nice." The boy smiled at them all. "And he would help you. Trust me."

"Icarus is trouble," Cross mumbled.

Icarus was a strange name, Amanda thought, but maybe it wasn't his real name. Incubus wasn't her friends' name and Harpy wasn't her name. But her friends said that he was some sort of trouble and she was inclined to believe them, because they hadn't steered her wrong before. She pulled Vogel closer and he smiled at her.

"Maybe," the little boy hummed. "But I don't care."

"We got it," Martin said in a warm voice. "Don't worry."

"I'm always worried."

The boy disappeared into a puddle, leaving them all in silence for a moment. It felt that there was nothing to say.

"You good, drummer girl?" Martin looked over at Amanda with a softer look on his face. Amanda grumbled a response. "Ain't your fault."

"It is a little bit."

"Blackwing ain't your fault."

She huffed. This was a ridiculous conversation. Martin seemed to take the hint and backed off, but the intentions of the conversation still hung in the air.

It hadn't been her fault.

It hadn't even been her brother's, really.

Blackwing was… inane. All she had gone to do way back then was give Theo a birthday present, and then she had never left the facility. She thought now that it was the proximity to the little boy that had made her illness act up in such an odd and tangible way, but it didn't matter now, did it? It had been her first attack. By far, it was the worse. Razor sharp feathers had grown out of her skin and turned real, had to be cut away.

Did Theo even know?

Amanda was lost in her thoughts again. Vogel started to play with her hair though, so that helped a little. 

Oh, this was ridiculous. She was being a baby.

It was comfortable right where she was though, so she stayed and made herself chat with her friends. It didn't matter how hard her brain decided to detach from reality, she had friends now.

That was all that was important.

**October 30th, 2019  
1:09 pm**

Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad.

It hurt.

Bad.

There was blood, but it was so red that Svlad wasn’t sure anymore. Was it blood? Was bloodred? Had it ever been red? Had he been tricked into thinking it was because Blackwing was that obsessed with control? Why did he have blood? He had bled so much in his life, so how was it possible he had any of it left? Maybe they were replacing it.

He wanted something to eat.

Food? Maybe one of those cupcakes he got sometimes when he was good. Or that sweet bread. A cactus. Wait, was that food.

Bad.

Stupid fucking Svlad.

A door opened, and he cringed. He was being good, it wasn’t his fault. He promised, he did. In all honesty, he couldn’t even remember what had happened to get him hurt. Mr. Priest had come around to bring him a meal, and then the world faded out - it did this sometimes, Svlad was missing good portions of his memory - then he was lying propped against the wall, alone and in pain and covered in funny red paint.

He had decided that blood was not real and that someone had poured paint over him. That seemed to make the most sense. 

He wished it had been orange paint. The little necklace he had been given, that was orange. He was still clutching it, his fist closed tightly around the pendant. It was orange. He wanted to be orange.

Orange orange orange orange.

“Svlad?” Someone said his name. “Fuck. I’m gonna call a doctor. A trustwo… -lad? Svlad?”

Svlad had zoned out for a moment. He looked up from himself, blinking at the figure through pain-fogged eyes. It was short and stout and soft. The hair was smoothed and shiny. The eyes were sort of green, but if Svlad looked again he would have came to the conclusion that he didn’t know what color they actually were. A hand came towards him. He froze. But it grabbed his own and their fingers intertwined; Svlad knew who it was now.

“Hello.” Svlad hummed. 

“Thank god,” Theo said with a sigh of relief. “What happened?”

“Dunno. Mr. Priest.”

“Fucking asshole.”

“I’m- I’m not-”

“Not you.” Theo huffed, pulling his hand away from Svlad. The anger in Theo’s voice made Svlad start to cry.

“No, no, don’t do that,” Theo said. He tried to soften his voice, and his hand came back, brushing the tears from Svlad’s face. “I won’t hurt you. You’re not in trouble.”

“It hurts,” Svlad said in a weak attempt to make conversation.

“I know.” Theo wiped a drop of water from his face. He scooted closer, pressing a button on his phone to alert Doctor Reese that he needed help; then he moved closer, pulling Svlad into his arms.

This was definitely illegal. He shouldn’t be holding a subject like this. If the Director found out, he might decide that he had feelings for him, and put him on a different assignment. Theo needed- Svlad needed Theo, because he was the only one who tried to listen to him. Right?

“I’m sorry,” Svlad mumbled, relaxing into Theodore’s body in his painful haze. 

“It’s okay.”

“It’s okay?”

“Svlad,” Theo said. He dried his face again. “Look. I promise you’re okay. Priest can go fuck himself. I’ll hit him.”

“Don’t,” Svlad moaned. “He’ll hurt you.”

“Probably,” Theo mumbled, rubbing calming circles on Svlad’s arm.

Svlad glanced up as water started to drip steadily onto his face, the occasional drop turning into a stream. Theo followed his gaze, and they both stared at a growing wet circle on the ceiling.

“Icarus-”

“It isn’t me.”

“Isn’t me,” A third voice said. Theo jumped, Svlad didn’t, and he glared over at the women sitting with them.

“Lamia, what the-”

“It’s a spot,” she said, pointing to the circle. Then she disappeared, becoming a clown doll on Svlad’s lap. Clown doll. There had been one in Svlad’s room earlier too, had that been where Lamia was all this time?

What did Svlad call her again?

Theodore didn’t like the look of the water.

The spot grew larger and more water fell down. It all ended with a heavy flow of water, drenching them both and making it hard to hold on to one another. Theo closed his eyes. Where was his breath? Where was the floor? Where was Svlad? He felt the man slipping out from his arms and held on tighter, tighter, afraid he would disappear into the darkness and never come back.

Breathe.

Theo took a deep breath. He was laying flat on a floor, staring up at a warm, yellow ceiling with paper bats hanging from it. Svlad was still there. He turned a little, hiding his face in Theodore’s chest. He was scared. Theo could feel it through the shivers running through him, the uneven breaths.

“No- no, hey, hey it’s okay-”

“Todd?”

Theodore froze.

That voice. Oh no. He was going to get his ass kicked.

“Amanda?”

Oh my god.

“Amanda!”

Theodore sat up, pulling Svlad with him; the man was happy to stay close and curled up against him. And Theo stared up at his sister. Holy shit.

“What are you doing here,” Amanda asked, looking a little dumbfounded.

“He’s hurt. I was, um, trying to help. Water. What are you doing here?”

“Noth- nothing.”

Amanda looked strange. 

She looked a little pale, like she wasn’t getting enough sleep, and though he could still see just how capable she was of absolutely destroying him, something looked off. Almost skittish. He didn’t like that at all. He let go of Svlad with one hand, reaching out for her.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said softly. “I thought, you were-”

He and Svlad were nearly knocked over by Amanda. Lunging forward, she wrapped her arms around Theo and hid her face in his neck. He sighed, kissing the side of her head.

“Okay. Hey.”

“Hey.”

Theodore almost smiled.

**October 30th, 2019  
5:31 pm**

“How was I supposed to know-”

“You worked there-”

“They don’t tell me shit, Amanda!” Theo glared at his sister. How was he supposed to have known she was there? He was regulated to one ward, the cafe, and his room. God, if he had know… “I didn’t know, I promise.”

“I needed you.” Amanda sat down and covered her face. “I needed you, man.”

Theo sighed and moved closer, sitting down next to her. “I know. I’m sorry.”

Amanda leaned against him, trying to take a deep breath. It frightened Theo, the idea that the people he worked for didn’t actually know as much as they claimed. And it occurred to him… were they more harmful than good? But why would that be?

He wrapped his arms around Amanda and pulled her into a hug.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he said quietly. And Amanda listened, nodding and falling silent. It unnerved Theo. Todd. It unnerved him.

This was his fault for bringing his sister within proximity to those people. They had taken her and tortured her and it was his fault.

Fuck.

**October 31st, 2019  
7:08 am **

“Wake up,” Svlad whispered, poking Todd’s cheek. Todd huffed, turning and burying his head under the pillow. “Please?”

“‘M glad y’r feeling better,” Todd mumbled, still not opening his eyes. “What’s wrong? Hurt?”

“It’s Halloween,” Svlad said, a little bit of pride in his voice. Theodore nodded.

Oh yeah. Was Svlad excited?

“Halloween.” Todd glanced out at him. “You know, Halloween means you gotta Halloween cuddle with me?”

Svlad’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yup.”

So that’s what the did. Svlad curled up under the blanket with him and Todd held him as tightly as he dared. He didn’t know much. He didn’t even know if Blackwing would catch them again. But he did know that Svlad, Amanda, they weren’t ever going back. For now, they could enjoy Halloween like normal people.

That was enough for him.


End file.
